Dan Patrick has jumped from the biggest name in sports media to a very close second.
Patrick, who left ESPN in August, has signed a multi-platform deal with Sports Illustrated. Under the terms of the deal, Patrick will write a weekly “front-of-the-magazine” column for SI, beginning in January. The “exact structure or tenor” of the column “has not yet been established, but both he and SI execs said it would not mimic that of now-departed Steve Rushin or SI stalwart Rick Reilly.”
In addition to the column, SI will operate Patrick’s website, DanPatrick.com, which will continue to simulcast The Dan Patrick Show. Patrick will also write a daily blog on the SI FanNation website, and “host the magazine’s Sportsman of the Year Award show on Dec. 4.”
As part of the new agreement, SI writers, including Peter King, Tom Verducci and Rick Reilly, “will make regular appearances on [Patrick’s] radio show.”
The agreement is part of a partnership between Sports Illustrated and The Content Factory, which distributes Patrick’s radio show. Patrick will exclusively “[produce] content for Sports Illustrated, with the exception of television.” In other words, the agreement does not cover SI sister-organization Turner Sports. Patrick cannot return to television until after the Super Bowl, per his contract with ESPN.
